The title "American Fiction" suggests an exposé, or at the very least, an allegory - a criticism of the shallowness the permeates so much of American culture. Instead of being a well crafted allegory, the director Cord Jefferson has delivered a substantive, heartwarming, and compelling story about an author, that has preachy spurts of criticism peppered throughout. I liked the former, I was disappointed by the latter, and I wonder which category certain scenes and lines of dialogue belong in. One example of a scene that I'm not sure how to categorize is when the two brothers, played by Jeffery Wright and Sterling K. Brown are walking through the courtyard of the nursing home where they are about to admit their mother, they have the following conversation:
Cliff (played by Brown): This is nice.
Monk (played by Wright): Yeah, it’s not bad.
Cliff: What do they got there? A pergola?
Monk: That’s a gazebo.
Cliff: Same difference.
In the substantive, heartwarming, and compelling part of the movie, this would simply be an interaction between two brothers, that helps establish character. In the preachy criticism of American culture part of the movie, this exchange could be interpreted as pointing out the banality of things that people in the highest class of society argue about. That I can't know for sure, gives me the sense that this film is working on multiple levels, I just wish that it wouldn't be so obvious in the scenes that are meant to be the most scathing. For example, any scene with the film producer, played by Adam Brody is over-the-top, to the point that Brody playing a caricature, instead of a character. Now I'm fully aware that there are some films where this approach works, i.e. The Gangs of New York and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but it just doesn't work here. I realize that based on the subject matter, a certain amount of juxtaposition is warranted; the author, played by Wright has found himself living two lives, one as a genuine human being, and the other as a persona concocted to promote his new novel. Jefferson is successful at balancing these parallel threads, but inexplicably he tosses-in a handful of extreme character, and outrageous dialog, that jolts us out of the otherwise realistic approach to the storytelling. I really did find the film to be engaging, I especially liked the character played by Wright, and even its faults are memorable, so overall it was a good film.
Updated 3/2/24:
The opening of Bradley Cooper's film, Maestro, is a title card with a quote from Leonard Bernstein:
“A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them; and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers.”
Using this criterion to determine whether a given film is a 'work of art', American Fiction doesn't pass the test. Jefferson's use of stereotypes, most egregiously with Adam Brody's character, is an indication that Jefferson is steering his audience to a single conclusion, and isn't interested in the tension between contradictory answers.
